Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Prenatal Exposure To Methamphetamine Causes Vascular Dysfunction In Adult Male Offspring, Hasitha Chavva, Adam M. Belcher, Daniel A. Brazeau, Boyd Rorabaugh

Pharmaceutical Science and Research

Methamphetamine use during pregnancy can have negative consequences on the offspring. However, most studies investigating the impact of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine have focused on behavioral and neurological outcomes. Relatively little is known regarding the impact of prenatal methamphetamine on the adult cardiovascular system. This study investigated the impact of chronic fetal exposure to methamphetamine on vascular function in adult offspring. Pregnant female rats received daily saline or methamphetamine (5 mg/kg) injections starting on gestational day 1 and continuing until the pups were born. Vascular function was assessed in 5 month old offspring. Prenatal methamphetamine significantly decreased both the efficacy …

Methamphetamine-Induced Changes In Myocardial Gene Transcription Are Sex-Dependent, Hasitha Chavva, Daniel A. Brazeau, James Denvir, Donald A. Primerano, Jun Fan, Sarah L. Seeley, Boyd R. Rorabaugh

Pharmaceutical Science and Research

Background: Prior work demonstrated that female rats (but not their male littermates) exposed to methamphetamine become hypersensitive to myocardial ischemic injury. Importantly, this sex-dependent effect persists following 30 days of subsequent abstinence from the drug, suggesting that it may be mediated by long term changes in gene expression that are not rapidly reversed following discontinuation of methamphetamine use. The goal of the present study was to determine whether methamphetamine induces sex-dependent changes in myocardial gene expression and whether these changes persist following subsequent abstinence from methamphetamine.

Results: Methamphetamine induced changes in the myocardial transcriptome were significantly greater in female hearts …

Mechanisms Of Dopamine-Induced Methamphetamine Neurotoxicity, Melinda L. Asbury

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Methamphetamine (MA) neurotoxicity is particularly evident in the striatum where it causes extensive dopamine (DA) release and results in neurodegeneration. To identify specific signaling pathways and macromolecules involved in postsynaptic DA-induced striatal toxicity we used a SK-N-MC cell model that mimics postsynaptic D1 receptor-expressing striatal neurons. The cells were treated for 6-24 h with 0-50 µM DA. The concentration was chosen to impart physiological relevance to the study as it mirrors [DA] found within the striatum following MA exposure. We show that 25-50 µM DA resulted in protein changes consistent with nitro(oxidative) stress as well as enhanced cleavage of caspase …